Despite what had been a great day on stage two, a pretty uncomfortable night followed. The accommodations were king-like, but just slept terrible. I put it down to the fact that my stomach isn’t really accustomed to all the race food typical of stage racing. This, and my already accumulated fatigue, contributed to that all too familiar feeling of dead-legs. After all , this is my first stage race after 18 months. I still wasn’t sure how my body would react to the stress of multiple days on the bike. The question, which remained to be answered was: can my strong mental state make up for my physical weakness? The latest success proved to me, yes. So the name of the game kept going along the lines of: Be grateful, trust God – and the rest will take care for itself.
And so did I.
Stage 3
I took a conservative approach to the start of stage three and waited for the right moment to get rid of my direct competitors on the GC. I was confident that I could attack them and get a gap, especially after what happened on stage two. At 35km to the finish, it was time to go. A back-breaking climb was the ideal place to attack. I wanted to distance the two guys behind me as quickly as possible so I went all out for 5 min. One of the pair was an excellent climber but a poor descender. The another one quite the opposite.
Being aware that there would be a demanding downhill once we’d crested the top of this climb, I had to do all in my power to get rid of them right away. That hurt, most of all when I realized that one of them was sucking my wheel. I was leading him all along, and didn’t try to induce him to take over the lead. He was spent, so was I. Even so, from that moment on we attacked each other relentlessly. My last card was to try to drop him in the downhill run before the finish.
I knew I’d have to take risks as I entered the shadowy singletrack of the descent and was flying down the path as fast as I could. Despite the pain, it was beautiful.
And it paid off. The finish line was a welcome sight and I’d managed to gain another 1 min 38 sec on my contenders, solidifying my 2nd place in my category in the process. I was elated.
We were rewarded by another beach-like bath next to the finish area, and trust me , after taking an exhaustive massage I plunged happily into the sparkling water. I was really blessed that besides some small aches in my knees, my body had played ball so far.
Stage 4
Despite the good form I’d been showing I knew that without some form of miracle first place was beyond me. Tomi Hauser was just too strong. My position in 2nd place already exceeded my pre-race expectations. Accordingly, I made up my mind to enjoy the last stage, ride pragmatically, not take any risks. Undeniably, my stage race memory was there to remind me me that the very last stage is always the one I have to suffer the most with heavy, sluggish and totally emptied legs.
After another incredible start in the castle of Szerencs, the bunch kicked off really intensely. Straight away we knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but yet another day of attrition.
Lo and behold! My legs responded awesomely, couldn’t stop wondering why. I mean, in this race, pretty much everything had been different to my previous stage race experiences. Even the tiniest adversities turned into positive. Even now, I’m having a hard time recalling any negative moment (alright, maybe at times, when I missed a turn) over the course of race.
I grabbed a position in the leading group, taking turns at the front, and gaining valuable time. Well, this strong showing didn’t last that long and the first uphills urged me to back off a bit. I had to let them go. Oh dear, another lonely day in the desert.
Despite the stage only being 66km, it demonstrated just how tough the course for the TransHungaria could be. Rock-gardens up and down and although that played to my strengths, seeing my competitors demolishing their tires isn’t a great view. But hey that’s racing, and the ability to master difficult conditions makes up a complete racer.
Astonishingly, I had once again a very strong showing in the last third of the race. I intended to finish it up with some very strong final kilometers. So, for the last time, I went as hard as I could knowing full well those last 20km would put me deep in the hurt locker. I dug deep, and in doing so picked up Tomi Hauser, the guy going for 1st place. I couldn’t trust what I saw, the poor guy looked cooked. I yelled at him, he should glue to my wheel and we rode to the finish line together.
Entering Tokaj, all of the sudden all this pain just vanished. What remained was just a pure bliss and that flood of endorphins.